LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The Delta State Police Command has arrested one of its Operatives, Inspector Abri, for allegedly killing a middle-aged businessman after he reportedly refused to offer him a N100 bribe at a checkpoint.
The incident was said to have occurred on 5 April at Ugbolu region of the Delta State.
Following the action of the Police officer, residents took to the streets in protest.
The deceased, identified as Ibe Emmanuel Onyeka who was in his early twenties, was said to be a phone dealer at the popular Ogbogonogo Market, Asaba.
Some of the protesters grieved the deceased’s death, describing him as a true gentleman.
According to one Kester, “They killed the businessman in the presence of his newly pregnant wife. He is an international businessman with eight shops. They killed him for N100.00. They asked him to stop and he stopped. He is not a Yahoo boy, he sells phones.”
Another colleague of the deceased, Obi, called for justice for Onyeka.
However, Inspector Abri, the suspect, denied the allegation saying no one had demanded money from the deceased.
Inspector Abri said, “We were five in number. I feel very bad because this was not intentional,” Abri said.
He added, “This afternoon, we embarked on patrol of Illah road, where we were doing stop and search. I heard a voice from about 15 kilometers, ‘hold him, hold him’. Before. I could turn, the young man used his left hand to hold the nozzle of my rifle, and said, ‘I will kill you and go with your rifle’.
“Before I could turn to drag it with him, my belt entered the trigger and it fired. It was not intentional if he had not touched the nozzle of the gun, it would not have happened”.
Confirming the incident, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Ari Mohammed Ali, said, “We were at the security council meeting this afternoon when we received a distressed call to the effect that an inspector of Police attached to Area Command here in Asaba was alleged to have shot and killed an innocent member of the public, one Ibe Emmanuel Onyeka.
“I was at the state security council meeting when the incident happened and because of the seriousness of the incident, we have to hurriedly close the meeting. I got to the command headquarters and saw a mammoth crowd of young boys and girls protesting the death of an innocent civilian.
“I want to put it on record that this command will not take it, neither do I condone it, and the force hierarchy will never support this kind of nasty situation and consequently the inspector has been arrested alongside other members of the team.
“As a discipline organization, we have our own internal discipline mechanism, and to put it on record that he would be tried summarily and dismissed and then be prosecuted to face justice. I want to assure members of the public that justice would be done and served. We cannot condone it and nobody would tolerate it here”.
